


except a man be born again

by sleepinnude



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Butterflies, Dreams, M/M, NBC Kings - Freeform, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22547950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepinnude/pseuds/sleepinnude
Summary: Dean dreams of Cas while the angel is still trapped in Purgatory.[retroactive fill for the PB 100 prompt "butterfly"]
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Kudos: 14
Collections: ProfoundBond Drabble Challenge





	except a man be born again

Once Dean sees Cas, he knows he’s dreaming. He was pretty sure to start with, just that sense that you sometimes get when you’re aware of the unreality in a dream. When he parks Baby on the side of the road and steps out into a clearing in Nowhere, Kansas, though, he’s sure. It’s not the real Cas, dream-hopping, because he hadn’t appeared suddenly in the passenger seat. Besides, Dean would be surprised if Cas could reach his dream from Purgatory. 

Still, his heart lips wildly and he takes a step toward the angel, asking, “Cas?”

His voice makes no sound, though, and Castiel doesn’t react. He has his back to Dean, head tilted to the sky and arms outstretched like a droughted farmer waiting for rain, like a priest praying, like a man questioning God. His trenchcoat billows a little in the late August breeze, the one Dean had carried in Baby’s trunk, had pressed into Cas’s hands as he raged against himself and his sins.

Dean tries to say his name again, throat tensed. It feels raw and hoarse but still nothing comes up. Just the sound of cicadas and birdsong. Dean watches as Cas watches the sky and his eyes nearly cross as he tries to focus on something coming into view. Just a speck at first, the barest blur of brown-orange. And then, suddenly, it’s a butterfly, doing that dizzy, drifting dance through the air. But Dean can tell this one is moving with purpose, seeking, until it alights on Cas’s shoulder.

A laugh presses out of Dean, also soundless, and then suddenly there’s a half-dozen butterflies billowing down to cling to Castiel, to his hair, and his shoulders and his nose. More come, monarchs all, rising up from the long grass and the angel has a crown of them around his messy hair. No -- a halo. Monarch butterflies ringed around his head as if they were born to be there, as if they had sprung from their chrysalides in those very spots. 

Dean doesn’t know why, or when he started, but he’s crying. It’s the only thing he’s done in this dream so far that makes any noise and he leans into it, lets his breath heave and draw deep against his shaking lips. “Cas,” he croaks out on the ends of an exhale and steps toward the angel. Cas seems to hear him, finally, and turns.

Dean drops to his knees in the tallgrass at the sight. Cas, his Cas: in his trenchcoat and Jimmy’s suit and his all hair shock-blown with an ebbing chaplet of butterflies crowning him. The look on his face is beatific and Dean wishes he could have ever seen Cas like that in real life. That peaceful, that happy, that relieved. To see Cas like that is to see something holy.

And Cas smiles, takes a step toward Dean. He crouches gracefully and presses his lips to Dean’s forehead, holding there. Another sobbing breath pulls from Dean and one of the butterflies takes his cheek as perch. He hardly realizes, though, can’t register anything beyond the press of Cas’s lips on his skin.

“Please come back,” Dean pleads, but he’s gone voiceless once more and then, awake.

He passes a furious two hours tossing and turning, unsettled. Finally, he wakes Sam and asks him about dream symbolism and butterflies. Sam blinks up at his brother with concerned eyes and haltingly explains that they can mean a number of things: transformation, growth, prosperity, and…

"And?" Dean prompts when Sam trails off.

"Resurrection."

**Author's Note:**

> imagery so blatantly stolen from [NBC's Kings](https://vimeo.com/5632232)
> 
> title is from John 3:3 - Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God


End file.
